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PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE

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C.O. 882

ALLY WITHOUT PERMISSION OF THE BE REPRODUCED PHOTOGRAPHIC- COPYRIGHT PHOTOGRAPH-NOT TO

4PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON

SIR,

98

No. 11.

F. PRESTAGE, Esq., to COLONIAL OFFICE.

(Received November 22, 1886.)

Darjeeling, India, October 30, 1886. ONE of the late Governors of Ceylon, Sir William Gregory, with many planters and residents of that island, after inspecting the Darjeeling Himalayan Railway, having come to the conclusion that such a mountain railway was best suited for future extensions in Ceylon, led to my making certain definite proposals for constructing a similar line in that island (alluded to in the first paragraph of his Excellency the Governor's Despatch, No. 259, dated the 23rd June 1886*); this has led to much discussion, terminating, as far as I know, with the Despatch alluded to.

2. I have laboured under some disadvantage in not having a connected knowledge of the arguments urged for or against the two systems of construction by the Ceylon State railway officers, but I hope the results set forth in the attached copy of a letter to the Secretary to his Excellency the Governor will tend to satisfy his Excellency and yourself that railways specially designed to work over mountains, and which are worked with the unusual financial results set forth in paragraph 9, are better suited for working economically in mountainous countries than railways specially designed and suited for working in the plains only.

3. It is manifest from his Excellency the Governor's despatch, No. 259,* that his Excellency has accepted the opinions of officers who have a very limited experience of the working of mountain railways and particularly of the Darjeeling Himalayan railway, and if the results set forth in detail in the last half-yearly report of the Darjeeling Himalayan railway attached † are not accepted as proof of the success of working the much cheaper railway in every way, I would solicit that some independent officer who has had experience of working rather than in the construction of railways only, be deputed to report on the working of both the Ceylon State railway and the Darjeeling Himalayan with a view to advise which system can be most advantageously followed for the Ceylon railway mountain extensions.

I have, &c.

Her Majesty's Secretary of State for the Colonies.

(Signed) F. PRESTAGE,

Chairman and Consulting Engineer to the Darjeeling Himalayan Railway Company.

Enclosure in No. 11.

CEYLON, P.W.D.

From F. PRESTAGE, Esq., Darjeeling, to the SECRETARY to the Government of

Darjeeling, October 30, 1886.

SIR,

THE last issue of the "Ceylon Observer" received here, contains as a supple- ment, a copy of his Excellency the Governor's Despatch, No. 2, of the 23rd June 1886, but numbered "259, Miscellaneous," and wherein many references have been made to the comparative cost of construction and working of the Darjeeling Himalayan Railway with the Ceylon State Railways.

2. I cannot hope at this late period to urge with any usefulness any arguments that would cause his Excellency to form other opinions than those he has been pleased to record in the despatch, but so much of the data upon which his Excellency has formed his opinions is evidently unreliable and in no way founded on fact, that I solicit that the following observations in reply to the main questions raised may be laid before his Excellency.

3. I labour under great disadvantages in not being in possession of Mr. Waring's memorandum, upon which his Excellency's observations, are, I understand, mainly founded, and can only glean what that gentleman has urged, from the conclusions drawn and now published by his Excellency.

4. In reply to paragraph 4 of his Excellency's Despatch it is most unaccountable that the Hapatula extension should be expected to carry annually three times the goods traffic and eight times the passengers now carried on the Darjeeling Himalayan Railway, as this would yield a revenue of Rs. 851 per mile per week, nearly three times the

† Not printed.

No. 5.

99

average earnings of your main line and that of the trunk lines in India. (The East Indian Railway earns only Rs. 521 per week.) However, assuming that the estimate is accurate, to haul the load by the narrow gauge a dead load of only 43,000 tons per annum would have to be lifted against 127,000 tons with your standard gauge, and I need not enlarge on which could be lifted at the least cost.

5. As to the time it would take to work up the loads, experience is daily proving that they could be worked up or down by an occupation of a line like the Darjeeling Himalayan Railway, of only two hours per day of daylight: and four times the load mentioued should not cause serious strain on the working. Considering, however, that this heavy amount of traffic is not now secured on the Columbo end of the Ceylon railway, I doubt very much if it will be on the Hapatula end.

6. In reply to paragraph 5, my proposals have evidently been misunderstood. I never contemplated that such a road as this cart road should be provided by your Colony to lay the rails on. I simply asked for a good bridle track, 10 feet wide, and which I have already shown by paragraph 8 of my letter of 9th April last should not cost one-fourth of such a road, and this, I repeat, is where the main gains in cost, particularly in time occupied in construction is shown, although not brought to his Excellency's notice, as I submit it should have been. I do not know how Mr. Waring determined the cost of this bill cart road at Rs. 60,000 per mile, for I have endeavoured to get at the cost for years past, but no responsible officer of the Bengal Government has ventured to give it; anyhow, if it cost Rs. 80,000 instead of Rs. 60,000, the track required for the railway should not, as I have said, exceed one-fourth of the 24 feet road, and I have allowed 2,3501. per mile, considered to be ample by experts.

7. In reply to paragraph 6, the manner in which the rates charged on the Ceylon State railways, whether on the plains section or in the mountains, are so mixed up that it is difficult to make a comparison with the charges on the Darjeeling Himalayan Railway; for instance, on your comparatively level lines near the port of Columbo, charges are made that nearly approach our mountain rates (80 per cent. higher than on such railways in India), and the result has been that the net earnings in 23 years, have recouped all outlay; but the same rates being charged last year on the Hapatula section (the mountain line) only yielded 1-55 per cent. on the outlay; these results and facts should I submit have been brought prominently to his Excellency's notice, that a correct judgment might be formed of working the mountain portions of your railways such as have now to be constructed, for they prove that your Colony has only to go on extending in the mountains the class of railways that experience has proved are best suited for the plains, to very soon absorb the heavy surplus revenue your railways

now earn.

8. Whether the State should continue to charge mountain rates on the sections near the Port of Columbo, should, I would urge, be considered.

9. Whether the results of the working of the Darjeeling Himalayan Railway are considered exceptionally brilliant or not, I am glad to be able to state that the total dividend declared for last half year was 84 per cent., or at the rate of 17 per cent. per annum on the outlay, and which according to my experience is an unheard of return” in India or elsewhere.

10. In reply to paragraph 10, I have always understood that one of the most forcible arguments urged by the advocates for "mountain railways" in your Colony, now that all future extensions are in mountains, is that extensions are contemplated to Badulla and not only to Haputale, and if so the facts and figures set forth in paragraph 7, will, I hope influence his Excellency to the conclusion that railways best suited for the plains should not be extended into mountains.

11. In reply to paragraph 11, that it should have been thought necessary to represent to his Excellency that it will be necessary to have entirely separate and new shops for repairing the rolling stock of the narrower gauge, is more than a surprise to me.

12. It may be necessary to have a few extra special lighter tools to execute the repairs to the lighter stock, and this is one of the gains that will be shown from using the narrower gauge, but all the work may be most advantageously done in the same shops and under the same supervision, and as it will end in fewer and lighter repairs and renewals it will be a gain all round.

13. In reply to paragraph 12, I beg to be allowed to urge that considering the very much less time that it will take to construct a purely mountain railway, that if his Excellency is disposed to pass an order for the construction of one any time next year, it should be in working order before one of the standard gauge can be finished if started now, so that no delay will be shown if the mountain railway is accepted in reasonable time.

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